


Ace Bi His Sleeve

by Crystalinastar



Series: Duke Week 2020 [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Coming Out, Duke Thomas-centric, F/M, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Texting, it's very very mild and nonchalant bc that's how i come out to people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26227348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalinastar/pseuds/Crystalinastar
Summary: signal boost:deal still stands. I’ll ask aqualad out if you ask riko outRobina:uhhhh fuck u and alsoRobina:i asked if she wanted to go out for coffee with meRobina:[screenshot.png]signal boost:well, fuck.-Duke is a disaster bi ace. Somehow, his disastrous nature doesn't extend to his love life. Much.
Relationships: Duke Thomas & Bruce Wayne, Isabella Ortiz & Duke Thomas, Isabella Ortiz/Duke Thomas, Jackson Hyde/Duke Thomas
Series: Duke Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1902853
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39





	Ace Bi His Sleeve

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Duke Week 2020 Day Two: Gotham pride! 
> 
> also: i'm not ace (i did, however, check and consult several ace friends of mine) so if i messed anything up, please lmk!

Duke leans into Izzy’s lips, and Izzy presses back. He closes his eyes, expecting to feel something, anything, that spark he keeps reading about or the soft, silky touch that made him want to keep going on forever—but he feels none of that.

Instead, he feels Izzy’s cracked and dry lips—Riko always offers her spare chapstick or lip balm, but Izzy refuses. Duke gladly takes them in his girlfriend’s stead. He’s got a collection going. And he tries to be into it, he tries to focus on the physical sensation, but...

It's boring more than anything else, is all he has to say. He's certain Izzy enjoys it, and he remembers learning about how lip nerves are more sensitive, which is why kissing is enjoyable, but he doesn't get any of that. Just... none.

Huh.

When they pull away, Izzy’s eyes are twinkling and she’s grinning. She glows, a happy afterglow that always seems to come with a little buzz.

“How was that for your first kiss?” she teases gently. “Did it help you figure anything out?”

Duke shrugs. “Yeah,” he responds. “Kissing is weird.”

“Well,” Izzy allows, still grinning but a touch softer now, “it’s not for everyone. We can just hold hands from now on if you’d like.”

And _that_ , that kind of touch, that sends thrills up Duke’s arm and gives him a happy buzz. 

“I’d like that,” he tells her earnestly. He then holds out chapstick, cherry-flavored. “You need this more than I do.”

Izzy swats him. 

* * *

He and Izzy break up amiably. They work better as friends, anyways—friends who will take every opportunity to flirt with each other, but just friends nonetheless.

But Duke’s a bleeding heart, as Izzy calls him, and he’s swept away again by another person. Jackson Hyde. The latest Aqualad, who he meets when Aquaman’s meeting with Bruce on official hero business. Anytime they talk, Duke falls back to (good!) cheesy puns and otherwise snarky comments, but he can’t fight the grin on his face.

**Robina:** dude shoot ur shot!!

**signal boost:** izzy b lease I can’t do this he’s just. he’s???

**Robina:** d u k e

**signal boost:** i z z y

**signal boost:** ask out riko first and then come talk to me

**Robina:** …

**signal boost:** aha! so I was right

**signal boost:**...jfc we’re both disaster bis

**signal boost:** deal still stands. I’ll ask aqualad out if you ask riko out

**Robina:** uhhhh fuck u and also

**Robina:** i asked if she wanted to go out for coffee with me

**Robina:** [screenshot.png]

**signal boost:** well, fuck.

* * *

**signal boost:** hey aqualad [deleted]

**signal boost:** hey jackson [deleted]

**signal boost:** so about your biceps [deleted]

**signal boost:** hey!

**tide pod:** hi!

**signal boost:** so you know how you’re really charming? and funny and chill? and absolutely badass?

**tide pod:** ...yeah?

**signal boost:** uh

**signal boost:** fuck, confidence is Wack

**tide pod:** you’re really cool though? 

**tide pod:** idk man you do the day thing and you’re a bat and it’s really inspiring

**tide pod:** you should believe in yourself more

**signal boost:** you have no idea how you just made this so much harder for me

**tide pod:** how about you just……. do it

**signal boost:** hmmmmmm

**signal boost:** hmmmmmmmmmmm

**tide pod:** _duke_

**signal boost:** perhaps i WILL do it

**signal boost:** so jackson, do you want to go out with me? like as a date? like romantically?

**tide pod:** oh man i get why you were nervous now,

**signal boost:** please respond to it even if only to reject me

**tide pod:** hey what if i said i also thought you were cute and funny and hella charming

**tide pod:** and that i would love to go out with you?

**signal boost:** OH THANK FUCK

* * *

Duke floats on clouds on the day he and Jackson agree to meet up for a coffee date. He cuts his patrol short and rides his motorcycle at full speed towards the Batcave. 

As Duke walks into the Batcave, the chair (Batchair) turns around, with all the slow, dramatic flair of an evil villain. Instead, Bruce sits on the other end, cowl down, apparently working on something.

“Signal,” he says with his low rumble. “You were scheduled to patrol until five in the afternoon. If you wished to alter the schedule you set, you should have.”

Oh. Right. To be fair, Duke only remembers to set his own schedule for the month because he has calendar alarms set up. It’s much, much easier to just go out and come back whenever you want. 

He shrugs. “Can’t I just end patrol because I feel like it?” He glances back, at the zeta tube that would take him to San Francisco. He inches towards it. “I have, uh… homework I need to be getting to.”

“You’re not going towards the stairs. Just the opposite, actually.”

“Okay, okay, fine.” Duke throws his hands in the air. “You caught me. I’m going to meet up with someone. As a date,” he blurts, because Izzy and Riko are ninety percent of his impulse control, and Izzy _encouraged_ him into this situation. Riko is… presumably being her kickass lesbian self with Izzy right now. 

Bruce’s eyes only arch a little bit. “With who?”

How the Wayne kids of ages past could look in this man’s eyes and lie, Duke will never know. (Yes, he does know, he’s done it several times before.) “Jackson Hyde,” he says quickly. “You know. Aqualad?”

Belatedly, he realizes this is kind of like his coming out to Bruce. He’s sure Bruce won’t mind, Dick had flings with Wally in the past, Jason is… complicated but safe to say he isn’t cishet, Cass is currently dating Harper, Tim had things with both Kon and Steph, and honestly he’s not sure about Damian but those examples should all be enough, right?

Bruce only hums in that noncommittal way. “There are worse young heroes to be dating. Remember to lock your bedroom door.”

Duke’s eyebrows furrow in confusion, then his face scrunches up in understanding. “ _No_ ,” he groans. “Please, the last thing I want to do is think about… _that_. It’s only our first date! I’m ace!”

“Oh,” Bruce replies, nodding, probably mentally filing it away. “Understandable. I won’t make those remarks again if you’re uncomfortable.”

A smile breaks out on Duke’s face, and the warm fluffy feeling of acceptance grows in his chest. “Thanks. But I gotta go…?”

“By all means,” says Bruce, gesturing towards the zeta tube. “Don’t let me keep you. Have fun, sunshine.”

Duke takes this as permission to dash to the zeta tube, rapidly inputting his destination and letting his molecules disappear into the air as he is teleported. “Thanks, Bruce!”

Time to hopefully not make an utter fool of himself. At least he’s got an… ace up his sleeve. (Ace bi his sleeve? As in “by his sleeve” but bi? It loses the instant recognition of the phrase, but maybe…)


End file.
